At university, she set up a production company called Hush with a group of friends including the actor Ruth Wilson.
Her first dance/theatre collaboration at the Gate Theatre, I Am Falling, transferred to Sadler's Wells and was nominated for a South Bank Show Award.
It led to her developing the short film Nora with Nick Payne in response to the play which was produced by the Young Vic.
[4] In 2019 she directed Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge in Seawall/A Life at The Public Theater and on Broadway, receiving four Tony nominations,[5] for Best Play, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role twice, for both Gyllenhaal and Sturridge, and Best Sound Design in a Play for Daniel Kluger.
Cracknell now regularly collaborates with the Royal National Theatre,[1] where her credits include her productions of The Grapes of Wrath, Medea, A Deep Blue Sea (both were live-streamed into cinemas internationally as part of National Theatre Live), Blurred Lines and Julie (a new version of Strindberg's Miss Julie by Polly Stenham, also NT Live.)